Last week, a number of bills aimed at curtailing the growth of Chinese companies like Shein and TikTok were passed or proposed across the U.S. and Europe, but it’s unclear if those measures will be successful or popular. Don’t forget to subscribe to the Glossy Podcast for interviews with fashion industry leaders and Week in Review episodes, and the Glossy Beauty Podcast for interviews from the beauty industry. –Danny Parisi, sr. fashion reporter
Bills aimed at curbing the influence of Chinese business interests are passing
The global fashion landscape is set to change throughout the next year thanks to several new pieces of legislation being passed in the U.S. and abroad. Many seem specifically aimed at curbing the influence of Chinese companies. The TikTok ban, which passed a vote in the House last week and now heads to the Senate, has been eating up the most headline space. But other potentially momentous pieces of legislation recently passed, as well.
On Thursday, France’s lower house of parliament approved a bill focused on limiting the sales of ultra-fast fashion in France. The bill is primarily targeted at companies like Shein and Temu, which sell ultra-cheap clothing with a heavy environmental and ethical cost. The bill, which was unanimously approved in parliament, would gradually increase fines on products from these brands to up to €10 per item and ban the advertising of ultra-fast fashion products entirely.
Speaking on the Glossy Week in Review Podcast when the bill was still being considered, Glossy international reporter Zofia Zwieglinska said that slow fashion with an emphasis on craftsmanship isn’t just a sustainable choice in France — it’s also a matter of pride, as the nation has long valued traditional fashion craftsmanship.
In the U.S., another bit of legislation, the Americas Trade and Investment Act, was formally introduced in mid-March with a similar goal of curbing the flow of cheap goods from Shein and Temu. The bill places particular emphasis on closing a tax loophole that allows Shein to ship goods to the U.S. without paying duties.
In their summary, the bill’s sponsors cite the desire to strengthen economic ties between Western Hemisphere countries, in response to China’s growing influence in the Eastern Hemisphere, as a reason for the bill’s existence.
And finally, the TikTok ban passed in the House last week. TikTok owner ByteDance has six months to sell the company to another owner or else it will become illegal for companies like Apple or Google to host TikTok on their app stores.
Like the other bills, the TikTok ban is pointedly anti-China, with the bulk of the concerns raised by proponents like Representative Mike Gallagher being over ByteDance’s relationship to the Chinese government. But many of the specific criticisms of TikTok in the bill — namely, that it collects data on its users and contributes to misinformation and a confused media landscape rife with conspiracy theories — are all criticisms that could also be leveled at American social media companies like X and Meta.
While it’s true that China’s influence has grown in recent years — Shein alone has revenue of more than $30 billion annually — it’s not clear whether these measures will stop that rise. That’s especially true for TikTok, which is wildly popular among all age groups, especially Gen Z, with nearly 2 billion users.
